BB's News / rags

Chenille workshop, holiday & weaving shed

Chenille workshop, holiday & weaving shed

Swiss alps

Dear Weavers

It has been a while! For me it only seems yesterday I wrote the last blog post. But no, it has been 4 months ago!!! And yet so much has happened since.

In May my husband and I made the long journey to Europe and back. We really had the urge to visit our families in Switzerland like so many others after the pandemic. It was absolutely amazing to be able to give them all a big hug, chat for hours and eat lovely swiss food, especially cheese! We indulged in every way or form. It was a very busy holiday, but oh so worth it. Great memories were made. Unfortunately coming home was not so nice. We both got sick the next day we arrived home, most likely Covid and spent the following week in bed. But we were just glad it didn't happen during the holidays and we had beautiful memories to pull from.

Bern

Back home we continued with the build of my brand new weaving studio. It is coming along nicely and I will be able to move in soon. Can't wait to finally have my three looms back up and running again. It will be amazing to spread out and have my truly own space surrounded by all my looms and yarns... I think I will call my new studio "BB's weaving shed", as it looks quite similar to a shearing shed. 

 BB's weaving shed

In August I had the pleasure to give a workshop to the lovely group of weavers in Hervey Bay. The Hervey Bay Spinners, Weavers & Fibre Artists are a very warm and welcoming group of people. And I feel I made a lot of new friends over these couple of days. I drove to Hervey Bay twice for one day of workshop each time. The topic was "Making rag chenille and weaving it back into a mat", twice woven fabric. On the first day I showed them how to set up the loom to weave the rag chenille. Each one of them went home happily to finish weaving the chenille caterpillars. After two weeks I returned to weave the chenille into a lovely soft bathmat or chair pad. A great way to re-use your old t-shirts, pants or other fabrics instead of throwing them into the bin. A little time consuming, but a great way to help the environment and basically going back to what has been done centuries ago. It was a lot of fun and very colourful. Each mat turned out totally different because of the different fabrics used. Not one was even similar looking. Amazing work and thank you Hervey Bay group for having me.

 Weaving chenilleWeaving caterpillarsCaterpillars before cutting

CaterpillarsCaterpillarsWeaving mat

Weaving matWeaving mat

If your guild or weaving group would like to do something similar, send me an email and require about workshops. Due to the demand and my current situation I have decided to be available again for in person workshops from beginners to advance. Or you can attend the weaving seminar in 2024, where there is going to be another exciting 2 day workshop. Send email to sales@bbyarn.com

Last but not least I would also like to announce that the colour theory and twill drafting courses are now also available in print version. It is a little bit costly but would give you the option of having a piece of paper in your hand, rather than reading it on your computer. Go to www.bbyarn.com or click on one of the links below to get straight to the right page.

Colour Theory 1 + 2 print version $42 each + postage

Colour Theory 1 + 2 to download (PC + Mac version) $24.90 each

Twill drafting 1 + 2 print version $42 each + postage

Twill drafting 1 + 2 to download (PC + Mac version) $19.90

That would be all from me. I hope this blog post was interesting to read and I wish you happy weaving wherever you are and whatever you are doing right now.

Cheers

Ursula

Read more →